I disagree with the theory on lifeboat drills. Yes they were supposed to have one that day (apparently the Captain cancelled for church activities, or so I've read), but there would be no reason for passengers to suspect that it was a drill at 1am in the morning.

Jessica

but they did. and the crew did say anything against it.

they did at first becuase they were being told there was nothing wrong

which is whos fault?

By everything I've read, the White Star Line felt that having enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone onboard made the deck look cluttered, and what were they needed for anyway? In their view, they had constructed a ship that was unsinkable, thereby obviating the need for lifeboats. Therefore, the decision was made to remove many of the lifeboats. In essence, the lifeboats that were left onboard were really only there for show: as it was thought that theye would never be used, none of the crewmen were experienced in getting them down and into the water, and the davits the lifeboats were on didn't work properly, so when it came time to actually lower them down, it was a real mess - in fact, some of the ropes had to actually be cut to release the boats into the water because the davits weren't lowering them.

It was not the WST that viewed the ship as "unsinkable" (althoughh some might have thought that), the media started that nonsense. The number of life boats had more to do with what was the requirement by law at the time (which had not yet been changed according to size of the vessel and number of passengers). It's true that Andrews was over ruled when it came to the number of life boats, but still the Titanic had more life boats than required by law, so SOME consideration was taken (though not enough sadly). There was nothing wrong with the davits, it's just that they(the crewmen) could not load the boats quickly enough (both due to thier inexperience with the large ships and the time consuming process that loading the boats is). Ropes for one boat had to be cut because the passengers in a life boat couldnt find the release for them, then too this boat was swept back underneath another boat that was being lowered. Others were cut because they were simply being swepped away by the water.

Jessica

It's really worth looking up the provisions of the Board Of Trade lifeboat regulations of 1896 governing Titanic.
They proscribed a set number of lifeboats for ships above 10,000 tons and below. No doubt at the time, it was adequate, but in reading them, you should look at what the trends in liner tonnage were.
1899 RMS Oceanic 17,000 tons
1901 RMS Celtic 21,000 tons
1907 RMS Mauretania 32,000 tons
1911 RMS Olympic 45,000 tons.
At the time of her construction, Oceanic was the longest ship, and her displacement was only slightly less than the heaviest.
The regulations were set in stone by using a set number of boats and a cut-off tonnage, so they would not make allowance for the upward spiral of tonnage and passenger capacity.
This left it to the builders and the ship lines if additional capacity were to be offered, They were, on the other hand were not interested in things which would not enhance the profitability of the ships.
I give Andrews high marks for convincing White Star to fit the four Engelhardt collapsable lifeboats to increase capacity as well as to fit Welin double acting davits which had the capability ro double the number of lifeboats carried had he been able to convince them to do so-
The Board Of Trade regulations of 1896 were a great example of how not to write a law against a backkground of rapidly developing technology.
Jim
:pint:

Excellent article raises interesting points in the lifeboat discussion-
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item.php/4247.html
Jim :pint: